Lunch & Learn: Logged In & Left Out: Navigating Tech Addiction & Isolation

Join us for a continuing education course exploring the neurobiology of behavioral addictions, the digital mechanisms driving loneliness
About this Event

August's Lunch and Learn by More Than Therapy for 3 NBCC-approved clock hours is based on how internet and smartphone use have become inseparable from daily life, giving rise to behavioral addictions that were virtually nonexistent two decades ago. With the U.S. Surgeon General declaring loneliness a national public health threat, understanding the deep connection between digital overuse, mental health decline, and social isolation is critical for modern healthcare providers.

Logged In & Left Out is a continuing education course designed for health and mental health professionals across disciplines, including clinical counselors, social workers, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, and physical/occupational therapists. This course breaks down the neurobiology of internet dependency, examines its far-reaching public health impacts, and provides practical, evidence-based tools for clinical practice.

Course Outline & Key Topics Covered

• The Core Mechanisms of Behavioral Addiction: Examine the progression from liking to wanting to needing, dopaminergic reward pathways, and how non-substance addictions share neurobiological profiles with drug dependencies.
• Internet Addiction Characteristics & Subtypes: Overview of subtypes (social media, online gaming, information overload, cybersexual, compulsive shopping), diagnostic status (DSM-5-TR), and validated screening tools like Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT).
• The Loneliness Epidemic & Social Skill Atrophy: How compulsive device use fuels a self-reinforcing cycle of emotional distress, social isolation, and health risks equivalent to major physiological conditions.
• Persuasive Technology & Mental Health: Understanding variable ratio reinforcement ("slot machine" mechanics), blue light/sleep architecture disruption, and the post-2012 surge in adolescent depression and anxiety.
• Cross-Disciplinary Clinical Applications: Practical screening, brief intervention models (the 5 A's Framework, Motivational Interviewing, CBT protocols), and non-pharmacological strategies (mindfulness, digital detoxes, physical exercise) tailored for various healthcare settings.
• Clinician Digital Wellbeing: Addressing compassion fatigue, burnout, and establishing healthy digital boundaries in your own professional and personal life.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the 5 elements of addiction and explain how dopaminergic reward pathways are hijacked by digital platforms.
2. Differentiate between subtypes of internet addiction and apply validated screening instruments in practice.
3. Analyze the bidirectional relationship between digital dependency, chronic loneliness, and mental health decline.
4. Utilize evidence-based interventions, including CBT techniques, Motivational Interviewing, and the 5 A's framework, for brief clinical encounters.
5. Implement discipline-specific strategies to address the physical, psychological, and social impacts of technology overuse.